Investments in US dollars appear to be paying off for those who put away a dollar coin or even a cent or two from 1794. The
HA Long Beach coin auctions this week showed a return of 5.75% per annum on a 1794 US$1 coin which sold for $161,000 (inc. buyer's premium). At $632,500 each, both the 1793 and 1794 large 1 cent did even better recently (50 known). I'll leave it to you
to work out the return on that one.
Of the ~125 of the 1794 dollar coins known to exist there are 5 different die states, and this is an example of the most common of those. The silver coin was meant to compare in weight with and replace the Spanish silver dollar which was in widespread use
at the time. The die was meant for a smaller coin and this led to wildly differing alignment of the die onto the oversize blank, making each coin virtually individual.
Coin auctions have been very strongly bid recently and even Walter Husak was
stunned when his collection of 301 Large Cents ($3.01c in 1794 money) sold for $10.7 million in Febuary.
'
Cash is king after all and silver or copper can be better than gold. Don't suppose those smart cards will have the same appeal but you never know, might be wise to keep a couple in case.
I'm just off to check under Granny's mattress.